Running head: ON A POSITIVE NOTE 1

On a Positive Note

Elizabeth Griffin

COM/156

March 27, 2011

Dara t'Sas
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On a Positive Note
The Internet has made a positive impact on the music industry because music is more

easily accessible and so are the musicians making it. People are able to buy music more easily

than ever before, discover music easier than ever, and musicians can be discovered easier than

ever. If the Internet was never created, many people would go unnoticed as musicians.

The Internet has made it possible for people everywhere to listen to and purchase music

instantly. iTunes is one of the biggest contributors to purchasing music online. Everyone can

find millions of songs from just about any artist, album, or genre you can think of. All that

someone needs to do is download ITunes free online, create an account, and it is simply finding

what he or she wants and clicking “Buy.” Another contributor to purchasing music online is

amazon.com. Someone can purchase the actual CD, or the music digitally. With both iTunes and

amazon.com, there are two options, purchase the entire album or individual songs. Other sites

online have options where you pay a monthly fee to listen to any music you want to without

limits, such as rhapsody.com. All that one needs to do is, create an account, add music to create a

playlist, and listen to it anytime, an unlimited amount of times. There are no limits to getting

music, listening to music, and finding new music online. Programs such as LimeWire are the

contributors to the decrease in revenue for music sales. This is a tough thing for any musician to

have to deal with, but with sites like Imeem, there is still an effort being put out to try and help

boost sales as much as possible. “Imeem is primarily advertising, but we also make a great deal

of money from driving digital purchases of downloads, ringtones, ticket sales as well as

merchandising sales with more than 100 million unique users.”  (MacMillian, 2009).

Sources on the Internet such as Pandora Radio, Last.fm, and iTunes that have created a

way for people to discover new artists based on the artists they currently listen to. Pandora
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Radio was created to “quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of

popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with

interesting musical similarities to your choice.” (Pandora Media, Inc., 2011). Simply type in an

artist and it generates a playlist with that artist as well as ones that are similar. Last.fm is similar

to Pandora Radio in that a playlist is created of various artists that are similar to the one’s

searched. iTunes “gets recommendations based on music you love. Or discover new music by

going social with iTunes Ping. Follow your favorite artists and friends, find out what they’re

listening to, and join the conversation with the world’s most passionate music fans.” (Apple

Inc., 2011). Musicians may be losing money because it is so easy to download music free now,

but they are getting more exposure. “One potentially negative effect in particular has been the

charge made by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a trade group

representing the music industry, that P2P networks have enabled individuals to effectively steal

and share music, which is concomitant with decreasing CD sales. Still others claim that the

availability of free music on applications such as Napster and Kazaa, among others, has actually

helped the music industry by exposing individuals to artists they might not have otherwise

become aware of.”  (Mooney, Samanta, & Zadeh, 2010). Since so many artists are becoming

more known because of the Internet, it is helping their music sales as well as concert ticket and

merchandise sales. There are sites out there dedicated to helping musicians distribute and

promote their CDs like theorchard.com. Richard Gottehrer, co-founder of The Orchard.com says

“"We open up a world of possibility for people who appreciate music to experience things they

never would have experienced before we came along," The Orchard.com has an artist pay an

annual fee and they create a website for them that promotes their CD. They are signing up

around 400 to 500 new artists a month. They support any musician no matter how obscure their
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music is (Applegate, 2011). There needs to be more websites like theorchard.com because there

is such a vast array of music and everyone deserves to be heard.

Many artists and bands have become famous because the right people through the

Internet discovered them. One of the biggest artists who has been discovered this way is Justin

Bieber. “After posting dozens of homemade videos on YouTube in 2007, where he put his own

spin on songs from artists like Usher, Ne-Yo, and Stevie Wonder, Justin racked up over

10,000,000 views purely from word of mouth. Seven months after Justin started posting his

videos online, Scooter Braun flew the then 13-year old singer to Atlanta, GA to meet with his

colleagues.” (Island Def Jam Music Group, 2010). Other artists such as the new lead singer of

Journey, Arnel Pineda, who was discovered doing covers of Journey songs on YouTube.

(Cashmere, 2011). There are many ways for artists to get their name and songs heard by anyone

because of the Internet. YouTube is very popular, but website called youbloom.com is a site

created by artists for artists and their friends and family. It was established to support unsigned

talent, YouBloom's Vision is to enable musicians and artists to fulfill their potential, building and

connecting them directly with a wider audience and – importantly – helping them to make a

living. (YouBloom Plc., 2011) “Apart from providing artists with a performance platform,

YouBloom will provide management services to artists and will facilitate seed capital

fundraising, which allows those participating in the song contest to raise money from their fans

for musical projects.” (Keogh, 2010). The Internet and the people using it are creating more and

more ways for people to be heard and discovered.

The Internet is a window to so many opportunities for artists as well as listeners. It has

created a way for people to be discovered who would, more than likely, never get discovered
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otherwise. It also gives music lovers a way to find new artists to love and share. The Internet has

created a way for people to get music free as well, but there would not be as many artists being

heard without it. The Internet has had a positive impact on the music industry because there are

more musicians being heard now, more than ever.

References
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1. MacMillian, D. (2009). Digital Entertainment. Business Week. Retrieved from

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009035_000194.htm

2. Pandora Media, Inc.. (2011). Pandora Internet Radio. Retrieved from

http://www.pandora.com/corporate/

3. Apple Inc.. (2011). What is ITunes?. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/itunes/what-

is/

4. Mooney, P., Samanta, S., & Zadeh, A. H.M. (2010). Napster and its effects of the music
industry: an empirical analysis. Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3), 303. doi:Gale
PowerSearch, Academic OneFile..

5. Applegate, J. (2011). Aspiring Musicians Turn to Web Site to Find Audience. Los

Angeles Business Journal, 22(10), 26.

6. Island Def Jam Music Group. (2010). Justin Bieber Bio. Retrieved from
http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/bio.aspx

7. Cashmere, P. (2011). Journey to Release Eclipse. Undercover. Retrieved from

http://www.undercover.fm/news/14009-journey-to-release-eclipse

8. YouBloom Plc. (2011). About us. Retrieved from

http://www.youbloom.com/about/about_us/

9. Keogh, O. (2010). Emerging artists get web boost. Irish Times, 7(7), 1. doi:ProQuest:

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